Other TV and Film Companies
TriStar Television Background: Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. launched its own television arm as "Tri-Star Television" in March 1986 after the formation of "TeleVentures" with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions suggested by Stephen J. Cannell. The first official series was Downtown. After HBO (its last partner) dropped out of the venture the same year, Coke owned 100% of Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. Tri-Star Television was folded into the newly-formed Columbia Pictures Television on January 4, 1988 along with Columbia/Embassy Television after Coke sold its entertainment business to Tri-Star and renamed the company as "Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." on December 21, 1987. Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was later spun-off as a reorganized company in 1988. On October 7, 1991 under Sony Pictures Entertainment, TriStar Television was relaunched by dropping the hyphen (-) after acquiring several television shows from New World Television. On February 21, 1994, TriStar Television merged with CPT and became "Columbia TriStar Television". Both studios still produced its series independently, but in 1999 TriStar Television was folded into CTT (now "Sony Pictures Television") before''The Nanny and Mad About You'' ended on CBS & NBC, but kept its name in credit until 2000 on Early Edition. However, Malcolm & Eddie used the CTT credit. During that time, TriStar Television operated as in-name-only under Sony Pictures Television. On May 28, 2015, SPT resurrected TriStar Television as its boutique production label with the television series The Good Girls Revolt, which made its debut on Amazon Prime Video on November 5, 2015. 1st Logo (September 27, 1986-March 1988?) Nicknames: "The Pegasus", "Jumping Pegasus", "Pegasus Over Pyramid", "Pegasus Over Triangle, "Majestic Pegasus", "The Tri-Star Pegasus" Logo: A violet triangle that contains the background sky of the Tri-Star Pictures logo intro, with a golden border and the text: TRI STAR stacked on each other, zooms-out and plasters itself on a black background, above which the Pegasus is seen posed as in the movie logo. The text "TELEVISION" appears below. Months later, the word "TELEVISION" is already chyroned in underneath the logo. FX/SFX: The triangle zooming-out, and the "TELEVISION" text appearing. Cheesy Factor: "TELEVISION" looks very tacked/chyroned on, and the end product of the logo looks very poorly filmed. Music/Sounds: An edited version of the last seven notes of the 1984 TriStar Pictures theme composed by Dave Grusin. Availability: Extremely rare. It appeared on Downtown, Take Five, Nothing in Common, My Two Dads, and Werewolf. Werewolf reruns last aired on Chiller deleted this logo and was replaced by the 2005 SPT logo. However, this is seen on three episodes on S1 of My Two Dads from Shout! Factory under license by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and on Antenna TV. This also might have appeared on Reed Down Under. ''Strangely, on a couple of episodes of ''Werewolf, this had the actual TriStar Pictures logo in place of the TV version. Chiller reruns actually kept this. Scare Factor: Low. It can catch you off guard, thanks to the zoom-out and sudden fanfare. 2nd Logo (November 9, 1991-March 2, 1993) Nicknames: "Dark Marble", "Sparkling Pegasus", "CGI Marble", "The TriStar Pegasus II", "Pegasus Over Pyramid II", "The Silver Pegasus" Logo: On a dark gray or dark blue marbled background, the studio name in the same Didot font used on the CBS logo and on the '80s TriStar logo, only in CGI and a light silver color zooms out from the bottom to the center of the screen saying: TRI-''' '''STAR TELEVISION By having the word "TELEVISION" in a light silver cote-out rectangular box. Then, the "Pegasus Over Pyramid" logo is formed out of light streaks next to "TRI". Trivia: This logo is based on the 1991-1993 theatrical logo of TriStar Pictures as seen on trailers, TV spots, and the end of films. Variants: *On Forever Knight, the phrase "produced in association with" in white is seen above the logo on a dark blue background. *''The Fifth Corner has the logo fading out rather than cutting to black as normal. FX/SFX: The text zooming-out from the bottom and the streaking of the Pegasus. Music/Sounds: The end-title theme from any show, TV movie, or none. Music/Sounds Variants: *''The Boys of Twilight ''unsold pilot had the last 7 notes of the 1984 movie logo theme. *On ''Get A Life, the sound clips from the end of the episodes are heard. Availability: Extremely rare. Appeared on the 2nd season of Getting a Life starting with episode 2, the ultra short-lived series Charlie Hoover,'' 'The Fifth Corner'', and early S1 episodes of Forever Knight. Can still be seen on Rhino Home Video's Get a Life season 2 on VHS and DVD. Scare Factor: None for most variants. Minimal with the last 7 notes of the 1984 movie logo theme. 3rd Logo (September 19, 1992-June 23, 1999) Nicknames: "The TriStar Pegasus III", "Ultra Majestic Pegasus" Logo: We see the white, winged Pegasus with its wings spread out, posed on the dreamy, sun-lit, cloud-filled sky (which is a similar background from the Columbia Pictures logo, but the middle part is a bit shorter) as in the 1993 movie logo. "TRISTAR" appears on the top of the screen in giant bold, white chiseled text like the "COLUMBIA" text from the 1992 CPT logo and on the bottom of the screen in smaller text (all in the same Bank Gothic MD BT font as the 1992 CPT logo), "TRISTAR TELEVISION" with the byline "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" below it. Trivia: This logo was designed by artist Alan Reingold. Variants: *On the 1992 TV movie A Child Lost Forever, the 1995 TV movie Annie: A Royal Adventure, and the short-lived series Hudson Street, the logo appears enhanced. *Sometimes, on some shows and TV movies like the 1995 TV movie Sahara, the logo fades out like the 1992 CPT logo. *On a Jeopardy! episode aired on December 23, 1993, the logo was seen on a "Video Daily Double" question. The logo appears to be close-up, there is no text below the Pegasus and the "TRISTAR" text is not there. *On a French print of the miniseries Dead By Sunset, the logo is superimposed but most of it is invisible due to a very poor chroma-key effect. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: Depending on the logo years: *1992-1993, 1994-1995: The last 7 notes of the 1984 movie logo theme. Used again for first 3 season 2 episodes on Mad About You. From 1994-1995, this was used on the Michael Moore TV series TV Nation aired on NBC and Fox. *1993-1999: A 5-note majestic orchestral fanfare with bells composed by Jay Asher. *1994-1995: A 6-note majestic theme. *1996-1999: A short version of this has 4 notes based on the 1994 logo theme and is sped up and revamped. *In other cases, it used the closing theme of the show, original NBC and CBS airings would use generic music starting in 1994. *There is a silent version of the logo as well. Music/Sounds Variants: *There is a high tone variant of the last 7 notes of the theatrical theme on Mad About You S1 episode "Neighbors From Hell". *On Mad About You season 2 episode "Natural History", the 1993 theme echos at the end. *On the ultra short-lived series TriBeCa, it's the last 5 notes of the theatrical theme. *At least one episode of the short-lived Designing Women ''spin-off ''Women of the House''has the logo starting off silently, then playing the last three notes of the 1993 theme. *On one episode of the short-lived sitcom ''A League of their Own ''(based on the 1992 Columbia Pictures movie), the 1992 theme is low-pitched. *On the ''Mad About You''S2 episode, "It's A Wrap",There was a gag that Paul was calling the phone to producer Lou as he saids: "Show the guy on the phone, then you have the sound of the race track (for the In Front Productions logo), the thing with the hand (for the Nuance Productions logo) and the stupid horse with the wings (for of course, this logo)" Seconds later, he said" That'll work". This last part of the gag was removed to avoid confusion and replaced with the Sony Pictures Television logo. However the 1993 jingle has still heard. Availability: Uncommon. Thanks to Sony's habit of plastering over former logos with their more recent ones, this logo isn't quite as easy to find as its sister logo of 1993's CPT, but it's still not too hard to find on certain sources. It originally appeared on ''The Edge, Mad About You, Early Edition, Malcolm & Eddie, TriBeCa,'' 'The Nanny'','' Hudson Street'', Ned and Stacey, and the remaining seasons of Forever Knight, among other shows and TV movies, but recent broadcasts of most series plaster this logo over with the Sony Pictures Television logo. However, this logo is currently seen on Annie: A Royal Adventure on VHS and DVD, the first two seasons of'' Mad About You'' on DVD, a surprise appearance on the pilot episode of My Two Dads ''(plastering the 1986 logo) seen on the DVD release of the first season from Shout! Factory, the first season of ''Malcolm & Eddie on DVD also from Shout! Factory with seasons 1-3 on Fuse retaining the logo, the first three seasons of Early Edition ''last aired on FamilyNet and Syfy, the VHS release of the 1994 TV movie ''Next Door, the first episode of'' Mr. Show on DVD, and appears on all but five episodes (those having the CTTD logo) of ''The Edge ''on DVD. It also surprisingly appeared on one episode of ''The Jeff Foxworthy Show instead of the CPT logo on TBS (probably due to the editing mistake or maybe a plaster). It also appeared on From the Files of Joseph Wambaugh: A Jury of One. Outside of the US may have this logo in several countries, but others will have the SPT logo. Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant: *1992-1993: Minimal. *1993-1999: None. *1994-1995: None. *1996-1999: Low. The theme can catch you off guard if you haven't heard it before. *''Mad About You'' "It's A Wrap" variant: None to low. This gag could make you laugh some. Sony Pictures DVD Center (Late 1990's-2000's) Nickname: "The Rainbow Laser" Logo: We start with a big flash, that leaving light rays, and there are three colored lines coming together in the center. They hit the ground and leave, though we then see an image with lighted spot on the ground, and three lines - red, green, blue - stand there and cast shadows. The words fades in below: SONY PICTURES DVD CENTER ---- MASTERING THE ART OF TECHNOLOGY FX/SFX: The flash, and animation of the lines. Variants: Another variant has the name SONY PICTURES and DIGITAL AUTHORING CENTER. It was seen on the DVD of Crossroads. Music/Sounds: Various noisy sounds and whooshes ending with a very quiet crystal chime. Availability: Extremely rare. So far seen at the end of some Region 2 DVDs released by Columbia Tristar Home Video. Also seen on a few early Region 2 SPHE releases, such as the 2005 DVDs of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. In the US, the print logo appears on the DVD cover and label, but not on the DVD itself. Surprisingly, this appears on the Region 2 DVD releases of Jurrasic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, even though they were from Universal Studios and not Sony. It is also at the end on the Australian DVD release of Kermit's Swamp Years ''(skip to 7:56) Scare Factor: Low to medium. The quick animation and flash might scare some. Fly Video Productions (Greece) 1st Logo (1980's) Logo: On a blue gradient background a purple cartoon fly flies in the spiral motion leaving the rainbow trail, and as close as it reaches the center of the screen, it unfolds into a white filmreel and spins while the rainbow spiral goes in the film reel like filmstrips. While the film reel spins with the rainbow inside it, it flips the colors of holes and the body of the film reel and turns the background teal and back twice, then the cartoon fly from before comes out from behind the movie reel and goes off screen to the top-right. Then it cuts to the fly flying and making a turn against the sky blue gradient background and pauses, then a TV-tube shape zooms out revealing an orange background with the words "fly" in a script font and "''video productions" in 2 lines next to it. FX/SFX: The animation. Cheesy Factor: TBA Music/Sounds: A nice, dramatic fanfare performed on a synthesizer. Availability: Rare. Scare Factor: None to low, it all depends if you're disgusted by flies. Pet Fly Productions Background: This is the vanity card of Paul Demeo and Danny Bilson. (September 20, 1990-May 24, 1999) Logo: On a cracked marble background, there is a cut-out circle in the middle of the screen. Inside it is a green fly in front of a cartoonish sky with some clouds. Above is "PET FLY" in a arch over the circle which is also cote-out. Below it is "PRODUCTIONS" in a mishmash font made of symbols, including an Eye of Horus, in a rounded rectangle which is also curved against the bottom of the circle. Below it appears "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" in white. Variant: On French dubs of their shows, the "IAW" text is written in said language. FX/SFX: The IAW text fading in. Sometimes none. Music/Sounds: A fly buzzing starting in 1994. Most of the time, it is the ending theme of the show. Availability: Uncommon. Seen on Human Target, The Flash (the 1990 series), Viper, and The Sentinel. Scare Factor: Low. The buzzing may scare some, but it's harmless. The scare factor may raise to some who may have a fear of insects. Category:Logos